Hoax call caused Chula Vista SWAT action

A hoax phone call that appeared to be from a suicidal man who had killed his wife prompted a three-hour SWAT action with evacuations and a school lockdown in Chula Vista Thursday.

The hoax unravelled when the supposed victim contacted officers at their command post, assurred them she was fine and that her fiance – not her husband – was at work at the 32nd Street Navy base, police Capt. Gary Wedge said.

The 3 p.m. phone call showed up on the police dispatcher’s caller ID as coming from a condominium on Garnet Peak Road in the Eastlake Greens neighborhood. The caller said he had killed his wife and was going to kill himself, police said.

Officers surrounded the two-story condo and started evacuating neighbors. About half a mile away, Arroyo Vista Elementary School on School House Road, near Hunte Parkway, went on lockdown from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. The lockdown was lifted when officers escorted students off campus and set up a SWAT command post at the school.

About 5 p.m., a woman and a man showed up at the command post and identified themselves as two of the three roommates who shared the condo being targeted by police, Wedge said. He said someone had phoned the woman and told her police were at her residence.

She told officers her fiance, a Navy man, was the third roommate, and that he was working on the base. Police later contacted him there.

Wedge said all three denied knowing anything about the phone call. SWAT officers searched the condo and found it to be empty.

“Every indication is, this was a hoax,” Wedge said.

No one was arrested and police continued to investigate Thursday night.